A guide for making your own minecraft animations and animated textures, this article contains step by step written instructions accompanied by pictures so anyone can make trippy sliding walls, shining armor, or doggies with flashing eyes.

How do minecraft animations work?

Simple! The minecraft animation system works just like a movie reel. You can ‘animate’ minecraft textures simply by adding more ‘frames’ to the item.png. The number of frames you add (and by frame, I mean vertically duplicated item image) will vary the speed of the animation. More frames means longer, smoother animation. Fewer frames means faster, more jerky animations.

Animated textures sure are changing the way we think and feel about minecraft, aren’t they? This video shows you a ship sailing on sand and a train travelling along tracks. It also contains an explanation of how the effect is created, so you cam make your own sailing ships and complex minecraft vehicles.